Uefa will demand to know how Paris Saint-Germain intend to finance their world-record £198 million transfer deal for Barcelona’s Brazilian superstar Neymar, with European football’s governing body reiterating its stance that financial fair play(FFP) rules will be enforced.
On a dramatic day, Barcelona announced on Wednesday that Neymar, 25, had told them of his intention to leave and that in response had said he could only do so on payment of the £198 million (€222m) buy-out clause included in the new contract he signed last year.
It is anticipated that the Qatari-owned PSG will pay it in full although the structure of the deal, expected to be €450m in total, will have to pass Uefa’s financial fair play (FFP) rules.
Neymar is expected to earn around €55m a year before tax meaning that the total deal, spread over the course of a five-year contract, could cost €90m annually – almost a quarter of PSG’s current annual revenue of €389.6m.
In a statement to Telegraph Sport, Uefa reiterated its stance that FFP would be enforced, saying the organisation is “exceptionally serious” that clubs are not permitted to make losses in excess of €30 million over three years.
FILE PHOTO: FC Barcelona player Neymar
REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File photo
When the deal goes through it will more than double the current world-record transfer fee, the £89m paid by Manchester United to Juventus for Paul Pogba last summer, and it will make Neymar the world’s best-paid player.
His buy-out clause was intended as insurance that he would not leave Barcelona after overtures from PSG before he signed his last deal, although the Spanish club never anticipated that anyone would meet it.
The turning of the tables on Barca, ranked second in the world for turnover last season in the Deloitte Money League, has been met with anger in Spain where the president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, accused PSG of state-backed “financial doping”.
He said to Spanish newspaper AS that there would be a formal La Liga complaint to Uefa and the European Union about “the teams that receive economic investment from countries that gift players to their fans at the cost of taking them from other clubs.”
efa said in a statement that “all clubs must abide by the rules of FFP or face the consequences”. It added: “Uefa is exceptionally serious about the enforcement of FFP and keen that its success in stabilising the finances of European football continues.”
In response to a question about the Neymar deal, a Uefa spokesperson said that there had been no indication from PSG as to how they intended to make the transfer FFP-compliant.
Any deal will be concluded after the July 17 FFP deadline for this season and therefore will be included in financial disclosures for club licensing for 2018-19 Uefa competitions. In 2014, Uefa fined PSG €20m for breaching FFP regulations and maintains that the measures work, with losses across clubs in Europe’s top divisions falling from €1.7 billion in 2011 to €300m in 2015, and further reductions predicted.
Culled from The Telegraph
